The Australian Government will no longer introduce Mandatory Filtering legislation in Australia. Labor’s planned filtering legislation would have seen a broad range of legal content (originally defined as “prohibited content” and later re-framed as content that had been “refused classification”) blocked to Australian Internet users. Instead ISPs will now be required to restrict access to...

You won’t see Community Action Centre or In Their Room: Berlin at the 2012 Mardi Gras Film Festival. The Australian Classification Board has refused to give festival organisers an exemption to show the films at the public attended event because each would likely be classified X in Australia. Why? Both contain real sexual activity. Festival...

It’s rare that I use Somebody Think of the Children to preempt outrage (rarer than me posting at all, sorry), but I expect we’ll hear more about this Google Maps Street View mashup that allows you to shoot an M4A1 assault rifle in a virtual street. Pop in any address on the site where Google...

The Tool Shop’s “Imagine all three at once” billboard is the advertising equivalent of trolling Facebook. And where there’s a troll there’s someone taking the bait. In this case Queensland Government Minister for Women, Karen Struthers. Struthers says the wording of the ad is an explicit sexual reference that degrades women. Explicit? Hardly. Sexual? Maybe...

Hi all. It’s been nearly a year since I blogged about censorship here on Somebody Think of the Children. In fact, it’s been nearly a year since I wrote about censorship at all. Apart from the occasional Twitter discussion I’ve generally been focused on work and other online projects. I’ll admit the break has been...

The Australian Classification Board has banned L.A. Zombie from screening at the Melbourne International Film Festival. According to The Age, the ACB refused to issue an exemption for the festival to show the film based ‘on information submitted by MIFF, inspection of the film and the classification history of the director”. Festival director Richard Moore...

by Tim Biggs The Federal Government’s mandatory internet filter will not likely be introduced for a year, until after a review of what content would be blocked. Stephen Conroy today announced a new set of ‘transparency and accountability’ measures that will be introduced alongside the filter, and chief among them are changes to the Refused...

Just a quick reminder folks that both Four Corners and Q&A on ABC this evening (Monday, May 10) are about Labor’s Internet censorship policy (which is still very much on their agenda, despite some reports claiming it’s been ditched). You can tune into Four Corners at 8:30PM and Q&A at 9:35PM, both on ABC1. Four...

Update 6:40PM May 6: Ticket is still available. I can’t make it down to Sydney next week as planned, so my ticket to IQ2 Oz’s Governments should not censor the Internet debate to be held at Angel Place (Tuesday May 11 at 6:30PM) is up for grabs. The only catch is I’d like the winner...

Senator Conroy will debate ISP filtering with Colin Jacobs from Electronic Frontiers Australia, network engineer Mark Newton and Professor Catharine Lumby on Radio National this Monday the 29th of March at 6PM AEDT. Michael Grace from Internet filtering and web access company Netsweeper will also be on. The full details are on the Australia Talks...

In his first major TV appearance regarding the filter since Q&A and Insight in early 2009, Senator Conroy will head back to the tube Wednesday evening in an attempt to sell government’s mandatory net censorship plan to the masses on Channel 10’s The 7PM Project. A rare occurrence for a Minister we are used to...

There’s news this morning that some parents who took their tween children to Aussie Lady Gaga concerts are gagging because of the adult nature of the concert. Rewind. Yes they are upset because a performer, renowned for her racy costumes and hybrid-burlesque-strip-show music videos, put on a concert that was probably best left to adults...